Firstly, the banning of Islamic groups Al Muhajiroun, Islam4UK, Call to Submission, Islamic Path, and London School of Sharia, announced today by Alan Johnson, Home Secretary, can only provoke condemnation here.

Let me be clear: I do not support these groups, and have no sympathy for their right-wing politics – only disdain. But, there is no justification for banning these groups that I find acceptable, and I see this move as a strategy of excluding and criminalising the Islamic community. Make no mistake, I am certain that Islam4UK and similar groups do not speak for even a majority of British Muslims, never mind the entirety of the Muslim community. But, we must ask on what basis this group has been labelled a ‘terrorist’ organisation, and who decides what is and is not terroristic. The Terrorism Act gives too much power to the Government. If terrorism is no longer to be judged by concrete actions – by violent acts, or plans to commit violent acts – then on what basis does this criminalisation proceed? If we are to start (sorry, if we are to continue) criminalising thoughts, political views and religious beliefs, how far will this marginalisation and criminalisation of our Islamic community go? And how far will this logic of unfreedom eat into the rest of society? Certainly the Terrorism Act is already being used to constrain other forms of protest, including those of the Left and Green movements. We need to oppose all forms of censorship and undemocratic legislation.

There is a paltry argument that has been formulated in support for this crass censorship: that allowing the propagation of extreme views allows for the ‘radicalisation’ of certain vulnerable groups. But we must ask, who decides what is and what is not an ‘extreme view’? Rather than trust the Government with these decisions, we must trust the people to make such decisions for themselves. Certainly provide debate, certainly provide support, and certainly at the level of public organisation (i.e. Universities, Mosques, and other community groups) refuse these right-wing groups a platform (since who wants to waste time listening to their garbage?). But do not ban them, because then we will all find ourselves standing on a very slippery slope.

Secondly, leaders of the Russell Group of Universities, Wendy Piatt, the group’s director general, and Michael Arthur, its chair and the vice-chancellor of Leeds University, have today condemned the Government’s Higher Education plans.

In the new year we need to stop looking to our ‘leaders’ and start some serious organisation at the level of students, lecturers, parents and teachers – and possibly other workers too.

These plans do not simply affect a small privileged and insular minority. Research has implications for society far beyond my ability to describe here, and it will suffer immensely, in all disciplines. Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences will of course be worst hit. Mainstream society does not even recognise the severity of this loss, because mainstream society has been so proletarianised, its everyday praxis so devalued, that it does not properly value the arts; it has already been so excluded from the sphere of art, that perhaps it will not even suffer any further losses. The real importance of these cuts, though, is that they may well enact the complete division of students and lecturers. Fees enabled the current Government discourse of “consumers and service providers” to prevail and presented a very real threat to academic solidarity. But, when the research and structural cuts go through, lecturers and administrators will feel severely less inclined to support students in their campaign to maintain the cap, never mind to abolish fees altogether. For these cuts will create a massive hole in University budgets and, if we allow them to go ahead, removal of the cap will seem like one viable way to fill it. Lecturers will quickly start thinking: “I don’t like what it will do to the students, but raising the cap would certainly make my life easier”. Especially when cuts start to cause redundancies.

There is only one serious solution – one that is not yet evidenced anywhere. That is to organise Student-Lecturer solidarity, to get onto the streets, as well as into the headlines, and to demand that Government properly fund Universities. This would mean reversing the decisions on cuts and instead investing more money in Universities, especially in research, as well as abolishing student fees altogether.

All about me…

I'm 24, based in the UK (I move around a bit), stuck deep into PhD research. I'm currently busy wearing holes in my shoes, organising for the revolution and getting into more trouble than I can manage. I was raised on brown bread in the flatlands, dreaming of eels. I write, read and drink, take photos, smoke, think, trip over things, hang around, cycle, draw, drown, eat, stamp my feet, tap my hands to invisible beats - - - but who doesn't? I try to be good, but, as Berlusconi said, "I am no saint!" - - - then again, who is?

Juxtapoz Art and Culture Magazine S'a pretty cool mag with a lot of stuff going-on
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